Jeff Bridges: 'Iron Man' Is 'The Best Marvel Movie', But It 'Drove Me Crazy'

Over 14 years later, Jeff Bridges reveals all the shocking production details behind "Iron Man".

The Marvel Cinematic Universe kicked off in 2008 starring Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Mickey Rourke and Bridges was directed by Jon Favreau, whom Bridges called a "great filmmaker" during a video career retrospective for Vanity Fair. However, Marvel didn't make it easy for Favreau at the time.

"It was Marvel's first venture into directing movies. It was so lucky to have Jon there and [Robert] Downey, because they're both such, they're great improvisers, and we spent a few weeks working on the script and rehearsing together, because we didn't like the original script and we were like, "Oh yeah, we fixed this, fixed that," Bridges explained. .

He continued, "And then came the first day of filming, and Marvel kind of threw away our script that we had been working on, saying, 'No, that's not good.' It must be. this and that.' And so there was a lot of confusion about what our script was, what we were going to say, you know? And we would spend hours in one of our trailers going through the lines and say, "Oh, you play me or I'll play you," exploring how we were going to do it."

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According to Bridges, Favreau approached screenwriters as consultants: "Jon was like, 'Oh, I know a writer. Let me see if he might have any ideas...' Meanwhile, the team is on the soundstage, tapping their feet and saying, 'When are we going to start this thing?' »

The experience was unlike anything Bridges had experienced before.

"It drove me absolutely crazy until I made a slight adjustment in my brain," the Oscar-winning actor confessed, "and that adjustment was, 'Jeff, relax. You're making a movie. 200 million dollar student. Relax and have fun. ” And that did the trick because here I can play with these two amazing artists and just play, and that's what we ended up TO DO. "

And for Bridges, the result turned out to be worthy of the books. "For my money, it's the best Marvel movie," he said. "I know I'm biased, of course. But man, I thought it was a wonderful experience."

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